What are the latest trends for inflation?

It is time to review one of the themes of 2017 which is that we expected a pick-up in the annual rate of inflation around the world. This has been in play with the US CPI rising at an annual rate of 2.4% in March and the Euro area CPI rising at 1.9% in April for example. If we switch to the factor that has been the main player in this we see that energy prices were 10.9% higher in the US than a year before and that in the Euro area they had gone from an annual rate of -8.7% in April last year to 7.5% this April. If we look at my own country the UK then the new headline inflation measure called CPIH ( where H includes an Imputed Rent effort at housing costs) then inflation has risen from 0.2% in October 2015 to 2.3% in March. So we see that the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England have inflation above target and the ECB on it which means two things. Firstly those who went on and on about deflation a couple of years ago were about as accurate as central banking Forward Guidance . Secondly that we can expect inflation in the use of the words “temporary” and “transitory”!

Crude Oil

There has been a change in trend here indicated this morning by this from @LiveSquawk.

Saudi OPEC Governor: Based On Today’s Data, There Is Growing Conviction That 6-Month Extension May Be Needed To Re-balance The Market

You may recall that what used to be the world’s most powerful cartel the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC met last November to agree some output cuts. These achieved their objective for a time as the price of crude oil rose however this was undermined by a couple of factors. The first was that it was liable to be a victim of its own success as a higher oil price was always likely to encourage the shale oil wildcatters especially in the United States to increase production. This would not only dampen the price increase but also reduce the relative importance of OPEC. As you can see below that has happened.

U.S. crude production rose to 9.29 million barrels last week, the highest level since August 2015, according to the Energy Information Administration. (Bloomberg).

Also doubts rose as to whether OPEC was delivering the output cuts that it promised. For example they seem to be exporting more than implied by their proclaimed cuts. From the Financial Times.

Analysts at Energy Aspects say tanker tracking data suggests Opec’s exports have fallen by as little as 800,000 b/d so far in 2017 as some members have supplanted oil lost to production cutbacks with crude from storage, or have freed up barrels for export as they carry out maintenance at domestic refineries.

On the other side of the coin there is the fact that for a given level of output we need less oil these days and an example of this comes from the Financial Post in Canada today.

Canada substantially boosted its renewable electricity capacity over the past decade, and has now emerged as the second largest producer of hydroelectricty in the world, a new report said Wednesday.

So the trajectory for oil demand looks lower making the “balance” OPEC is looking for harder to achieve.

Other commodities

We get a guide to this if we look to a land down under as the Reserve Bank of Australia has updated us in its monetary policy today.

Beyond the next couple of quarters, prices of bulk commodities are expected to decline………Consistent with previous forecasts, iron ore prices have already fallen significantly in the past few weeks.

The RBA also produces an index of commodity prices.

Preliminary estimates for April indicate that the index decreased by 3.5 per cent (on a monthly average basis) in SDR terms, after decreasing by 1.7 per cent in March (revised). A decline in the iron ore price more than offset an increase in the coking coal price. Both the rural and base metals subindices decreased slightly in the month. In Australian dollar terms, the index decreased by 2.0 per cent in April.

So the rally seems to be over and the index above was inflated by supply problems for coal which drove its price higher. As to Iron Ore the Melbourne Age updates us on what has been going on.

Spot Asian iron ore prices have performed worse than Chinese steel rebar futures in recent weeks, dropping 31 per cent from a peak of US$94.86 a tonne on February 21 to US$65.20 on Thursday.

If we switch to Dr. Copper then the rally seems to be over there too although so far the price drops have been relatively minor.

What about food prices?

The United Nations updated us yesterday on this.

The FAO Food Price Index* (FFPI) averaged 168.0 points in April 2017, down 3.1 points (1.8 percent) from March, but still 15.2 points (10 percent) higher than in April 2016. As in March, all commodity indices used in the calculation of the FFPI subsided in April, with the exception of meat values.

As ever there are different swings here and of course the swings remind us of the film Trading Places. There was a time that these looked like the most rigged markets but of course there is so much more competition for such a title these days including from those who are supposed to provide fair markets ( central banks ).

Comment

There is a fair bit to consider here as we look forwards. There is always a danger in using financial markets too precisely as of course sharp falls like we have seen this week are often followed by a rebound. But it does look as if the commodity price trajectory has shifted lower which is good for inflation trends which is likely to boost economic growth compared to otherwise. Of course there are losers as well as winners here as commodity producers lose and importers win. But overall we seem set to see a bit less inflation than previously predicted and over time a little more economic growth.

As to the impact of a falling crude oil price on inflation the UK calculates it like this and I would imagine that many nations are in a similar position.

A 1 pence change on average in the cost of a litre of motor fuel contributes approximately 0.02 percentage points to the 1-month change in the CPIH.

There are of course also indirect effects on inflation from lower energy prices as well as other direct effects such as on domestic fuel bills. For the UK itself I estimated that inflation would be around 1.5% higher due to the EU leave due to the lower level of the Pound £ and for that to weaken economic growth. So for us in particular any dip in worldwide inflation is welcome as of course is the rise in the UK Pound £ to US $1.29.

A (space) oddity

We are using electronic methods of payment far more something which I can vouch for. However according to the Bank of England we are also demanding more cash.

Despite speculation to the contrary, the number of banknotes in circulation is increasing. During 2016, growth in the value of Bank of England notes was 10%, double its average growth rate over the past decade.

Who is stocking up and why? Pink Floyd of course famously provided some advice.

Money, it’s a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think I’ll buy me a football team

Share Radio

Sadly it comes to an end today and in truth it has been winding down in 2017. As someone who gave up his time to support it let me say that it is a shame and wish all those associated with it the best for the future.